Our friends from Geeks Are Sexy are at SXSW in Austin, where George Takei spoke yesterday. The theme of the talk was diversity and civil liberties, causes close to the Star Trek veteran’s heart, from his childhood in an American internment camp to his current support of LGBTQ rights.

Diversity is a running theme in Takei’s life. His time on one of the first television shows to promote such a diverse and encompassing cast counts as no small part of Takei’s thriving popularity today. Those fans of the original Star Trek passed their love and the lessons learned from that show onto the generations that followed. “Back in 1966, that was the height of the Cold War. when you turned on the TV set and saw Star Trek, you saw a trusted member of the team sitting next to him—which was a Russian.” Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, made sure this point was well known to audiences. Takei explained the reasoning behind it: “The point Roddenberry was trying to make was that in the middle of the Cold War, if you look to the future, we will have overcome the Cold War.”